Friday, April 25, 2014

Recently I had a long, and not too acrimonious dispute on Facebook over some of the assumptions undergirding a Chris Hedges rant, here. In it Hedges thoughtfully invokes as analagous to our present predicament the calamities which befell the men of Melville's fate-smitten whaling vessel, the Pequod, when they failed to stop Ahab, by mutiny, and in fact permitted themselves to be bought off. Hedges sees our fate in the whale's innards, as (literary) precedent and analog for our own politically catastrophic times.

Hedges is right, of course: We're fucked. Duh

And probably the fact of the failure of the mutiny aboard the Pequod dooms the ship and crew to destruction.

Likewise, it is self-evidently necessary to change the system. Like them, Hedges sez: We're doomed.

What nobody, not Hedges, nor anybody else, has so far been able to show me is how to replace that whole system without destroying everything it supports...

I have a personal stake in the matter. I am elderly, now, growing weaker, more dependent upon a functioning pharmaceutical distribution network, for example. It's kinda a matter of life/death. I need the drugs if wanna outlive my meager resources...and I do.

So I believe it is impingent upon those whose solutions to our present vicissitudes include overturning the "system" to address whether or not they are willing to kill me in the process.

Where do I stand on the list of expendables. I'm not complaining. Just so I know where we stand.

And if not by catastrophic revolt, then how they plan to dispossess the wealthy of the riches and privileges they will almost certainly choose to die for rather than to relinquish.

I was informed that a variety of writers--Chomsky, Vedanta Shiva, Arundati Roy, among others--had written about it. I'm not unfamiliar with them. I cannot recall how they answered the question, if they did.

And if it involves "educating the people," and/or "changing the structures of society," and/or "instituting justice," then the details of "HOW" are MORE crucial, NOT trivial, NOT dismissible by a shruggingly saying "Go look it up, if you care so much."

Cuz if there's a plan, it's gonna hafta be clear and easy enough that even simple minds like my own can understand it.

Woody assurez you: Here's a cast-iron, dead cert to win yer Xmas money.
Find a bookie. The deal is done. They wouldn't even BE hearing the case unless the fuckkkerz meant to overturn it.
The ONLY hope for the "Republic" is that, within the next 24 months, one or more of the following occurs:
1) Chief Roberts experiences another bout of that curious falling malaise, stumbles off a boat dock and is ground to chum by a passing speed-boat; and/or
2) Assoc. Scalia goes duck-hunting again with Dick Cheney and gets mortally shot in the face; and/or
3) Assoc. Thomas chokes on a pubic hair in a can of Coke.
The Opus Deist/GOPhux rule is SUPREME on the SCROTUS.
http://bit.ly/FalseStatements

How Woody Seezit:Prez Lowbar was 'selected' to take the heat off the GOPhukkks, to give 'em time to clean up the brand, after the 8 disastrous years of Bushevism. In 2008, NO GOPhukkk was gonna convincingly 'win.' The well was poisoned. The Oligarchs needed somebody NEW to hate more than Bush. Who better then a 'black man?' (Well, a white woman, but that would wait for the NEXT (this) time, when the 'legacy' of the First Black President and the prospect of the First Female President will drive the electorate BACK to the GOPhukkks in droves)...By the time the election in '16 rolls around, if everything goes to plan, Prez LowBar will be the most reviled, most castigated, most condemned man in Murka, and the Dims--as his Party--will suffer the same ignominy, in preparation for the Great Bush Restoration.Ms. Warren's a nice lady and she's smart, so she has to know, down deep, that "Big Government" is not the source of society's toughest problems. It is the 'regulatory capture' of the entire edifice and structure of the national government by private, for-profit, corporat interests which is the SOURCE of all our problems: The ol' revolving door, whereby private industry seeds the bureaucracy with its own satraps and salary-men, through political appointments to key supervisory or regulatory positions, and then rewards them with key positions and bigger salaries when they return to advise their firms how to fuck the govt they spend the previous three or fours years learning. Nobody who was EVER an (e.g.) FCC commissioner died poor.

Affirmative Action Ruling Will Further Racial Inequality

Bruce Dixon: The Supreme Court decision furthers institutional advantages of whites under the guise of colorblindness - April 24, 14Woody reckonz: That's the point, innit? The Court is under no obligation to hear any or every case referred to it. The Court selects the cases, itself. This is an inevitably, and consciously political act, no matter how the participants want to try to portray it otherwise. Four Justices must vote to "grant cert"--short for 'certiorari'--to bring a case before the whole Court.It would not be in the apparent or presumptive interest of the "Liberal" (choke) wing--the Kagan, Santa Sonja, Ginsberg, and Souter (sometimes)--to hear a challenge to a lower Court with which they agreed. So it is unlikely that they would grant cert to a caase that would overturn such a decision.Therefore, it seems to me, it has to have been four of the five OpusDeist cabal--the Roberts majority, 5/9ths--which granted cert.And if that is true, they granted cert only to overturn a lower Court decision with which they DISAGREED. I'd make book on the outcome of any SCROTE decision if I knew who voted for cert.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Today, on Facebook, somebody posted the following "Democratic Manifesto." Of course, I couldn't leave THAT alone:

We are not against capitalism. We are aqainst its abusive exploitation of workers. We’re not against religion, we’re against its misuse as a political tool.
We’re not against democracy, we’re against the manipulation of the democratic process by corporate forces.We’re not against the American Dream, we’re against its unattainability by anyone but the outrageously wealthy.We’re not against defending the nation, we’re against putting corporate interests above those of education, infrastructure, and the improvement of American Life.We’re not against America, we’re against the abandonment of its values in the name of economic and political security.We’re not against profits. we’re against profiting at the expense of, and detriment to, the health and well-being of American familiesWe’re not traitors. We’re not unpatriotic. We’re not elitist.We are Democrats. This is our America, too.by Max Jukes

Just a coupla things, here, Max:
1) Capitalism is, by nature and definition, "abusive." It is a system which requires inequality to function properly. See, eg, The Communist manifesto.
2) Religion is ALWAYS used as a political tool. Everywhere there is political strife in the world, there is a religious undercurrent stoking the blazes.
3) Political democracy is impossible, or worse, meaningless, in a totalitarian economic/business climate. You cannot have political 'freedom" when oligarchs command your every move for half or more of your waking day.
4) No soldier, sailor, airman or marine has died protecting the nation since 1945, at least. The wars of our lives have all been fought to advance the interests of corpoRat hegemony.
5) Re: Profits. See #1, above.
6) Re: Values. Murka's "values" have always been honored more in the breach than in the maintenance --Liberty and justice for all? Really? Ask our non-White citizens about their experiences, and those of their ancestor.
Just sayin...

Friday, April 11, 2014

ERA: "Still not ratified."
That's an understatement!
Woody'z once again in the unfortunate position of appearing to rain on the parade.
Never to be ratified! is more like it.
The ERA which once passed BOTH houses cannot now be ratified because Congress put an expiration limit on it. Congress extended the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982, but that time has long since past.
The foremost opponent of the measure in public was/is SyPhyllis Schlafly. Through her efforts, only 35 States ratified, and several of them withdrew ratification, somehow. Don't ask: it was a Raygoon thang...
Now, to become law, it will have to go through the WHOLE ratification process again: 67 Senators and 293 Housemembers must vote, again, to approve it, and 38 States must ratify.
As things stand now, and for the foreseeable future, there aren't enough votes in EITHER House to get the fucking thing onto the docket, and out of committee...

Friday, April 4, 2014

Woody'z heard lots of rumbling about how the GOPhukkks chances in '14 and '16 are diminsihed by their record of arrant asswholery.
I think the "left" is delusional to think that Murka's lumpen-proles and yokels won't eagerly and vigorously support a "return to normalcy" after the ("failed") experiment with the sochulist/muslim/kenyan/anti-christ.
"Way trodd thet, an' see whar it got us?"
Prez Lowbar, by 2016, very likely will have become the most reviled man in Murka, just because it makes such good press. But it will also be central to the GOPhukkks 'electoral/propaganda" strategy. For the NEXT 20 years!
The same energy that elected PrezLowbar over Bombin' Johnny McCain--visceral disgust with his predecessor--will obtain in the selection of the NEXT guy, too.Bush V. Clinton is just tooooo perfect an elaborate, oligarchic, practical joke on the country, the people, and the State. I do NOT think the Owners will be able to resist rubbing ALL our prolish, yokelish noses in THEIR shit...
Yer ol' perfesser is pretty sure that:
By the time Prez Lowbar's tenure is run, the temperature and temper of the "people" will be so "juiced" by all the coded insinuation and innuendo and racial propaganda, that the electorate will GLADLY, and HAPPILY, and JOYOUSLY install whatsoever conservative, Christian, right-wing Republican, straight, white American male that the Owners name.
It could be a Bush, or a Nixon; it wouldn't matter.
Just like Obama v. the Bushevik legacy, the good folks of Middull Murka will flock to the "other guy," "Not-Barry," in 2016, whosoever that may be, and whether or not he's a "real fascist."

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Fight For Bloggers' Rights

No "Small" Chips

Half-Empty or Half-Full?That's no choice at all.A better one? "Chipped, or Whole?"Cuz nobody wants to slice their lipSucking in that slaking sip.There are NO "small" chips.I don't much like bloodIn my scotch. You, bud?

--WNNK

Site-O-Meter

Dr. Woody's Droll Dichos & Homey Homilies

"Tweet" and "Twitter": Last gasps of cultural canaries in this hyper-mediated "coal-mine."

A 'gentleman' should be known by the quality of his intoxicants and his generosity with them.

A 9-letter word meaning "Thinking 'Everyone's out to get me.'" 'Paranoiac? "No,"Observant."

A MINIMUM wage that is NOT also a LIVING wage is makes a mockery of "working for a living."

A burning flag never hurt anybody who wasn't wrapped in it.

Age inflicts the subtlest injuries.

Agnosticism: A conviction that arguing over the 'existence' of 'gods' is only idol speculation...

Allowing White people to "define" racism in Murka is like letting priests define pederasty.

Atheism is a "religion" the same way "Off" is a TV channel.

Causation in human affairs is ALWAYS retrospective.

Celebrities are known for BEING known, not for WHAT they know.

Civility is the shit-soaked ball-gag the powerful force onto the People to silence their rage.

Class war only occurs when the workers fight back

Correlation is not causality, but it is close enough for schadenfreude,

Credit cards are nothing so much as renewable instruments of indenture.

Depressions are only really bad for 98-99% of folks. The rest do okay.

Do not automatically impute to 'stupidity' what can equally well be explained by 'malice.'

Do you have the sense that it's already been as good as it's gonna get?

Don't expect to be treated nicely by people to whose faith you are a living rebuke.

Economics is the scientific application of high-level maths to the job of making the Rulers look good.

Everybody's got 'baggage'. What matters is how and what you pack.

Faith is NOT an automatic dispensation from the requirementrs of reason and logic.

Free will (#1) is a handy myth by which the Owners can blame the Losers for their own fate and make the Losers accept the verdict.

Free will (#2) is a metaphorical trap by which the Oners/Owners persuade the powerless to blame themselves for their own oppression.

Freedom in any civilization is measured by the distance between the Church and the State.

Grown-ups don't expect "credit" for doing the right thing, or for NOT doing the wrong one.

Hope is emotional morphine. It doesn't relieve pain, it anulls anxiety about it.

Humanity: A cosmic experiment, testing if Life can survive self-consciousness. The Null Hypothesis appears safe.

I always scored "high" on drug tests...

I believe in higher powers; they're called "exponents."

I find the most vitriolic critics of lawyers usually have NOT been "defendants."

I never lost a job; I knew where every damn one of 'em was the day they let me go...

I'll believe you don't solve problems by throwing money at them when people with money stop throwing it at their problems.

I've not got much use for those who gotta have "God" to be good.

If I know your religious beliefs, and I haven't asked you about'em, you've said too much.

If it's my weed, we're on my schedule; if it's yours, I'm flexible.

If men were conditioned from birth to autofellate, they'd never have to leave the house; there'd be world peace in a generation...

If religious people were susceptible to reason, they wouldn't BE religious people.

If you get better with age, I must SURELY be approaching "splendid" by now.

In a dog's eyes, there's no such thing as "size."

In principle, there are a gazillion explanations for "things" that DON'T require "god," or "divine will" and only one that does. I like the odds.

In the "real" world, nobody cares HOW you win, only THAT you do...

In the Corporate State, corporate media are State Media.

Is "freedom" an intellectual/emotional antidote--the speculative antivenin--to the snake-bite certainty of determinism?

It is often easier an more effective to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

It's hard to quit being an asshole, because it requires admitting you were an asshole to begin with.

It's your pain. Nobody gets to tell you what hurts, how much or what helps.

Law functions best to insulate the Rulers from the insolence of the unruly.

Life is so rich, so variegated, so fecund that I find it unlikely that it is rare.

Life's an existential tautology: It's only purpose is to "be."

Life's too short to drink cheap Scotch,

Men seldom realize they're in the shit til it closes over them.

Men who weep at tragedy are "compassionate"; a weeping woman is "weak."

Metaphor: The art of calling something what it is not, and being understood.

NOTHING of which humans are capable has NOT at some time been both a sin and a sacrament.

No 'quiet desperation.' Not here; here, the despair is LOUD and RUDE.

No language is either "inferior" or "superior." None is "better" nor "worse." Each one uniquely conveys the conditions its speakers require it to describe.

No people, no country, which rewards "entrepreneurs" with profit from the misery of their neighbors and its citizens, --their illness, injury, imprisonment, disability or death--can be regarded as humane and deserves to be called "civilized." That's a nation of fucking, blood-sucking parasites....

No reliable CorpoRat sycophant, of which ever "party," ever left Congress broke.

Nobody gets religion like a slut gone "good."

Nobody's ever too old to be an orphan.

One may be honestly mistaken; but upon learning what is true, one must thereafter cease to be either 1) mistaken or 2) honest.

One may safely ignore those who loudly or proudly proclaim their own sanctity or enlightenment.

One seldom mutters imprecations when drunk that one does NOT think when sober.

One thing "faith" makes possible: ENDLESS self-deception!

One thing about being a solipsist is, you're never really alone.

Optimism is the secular equivalent of "faith."

People who mock lawyers mostly have never been defendants.

Religion is how folks who need 'purpose' invent it.

Religion is the safest grift: Nobody can say "God" didn't "say" what you say "He said."

Sarcasm: For when it's really NOT worth prison.

Sex is just sex. All the rest is adjectives.

Speed kills. Weed chills.

Television: Electronic thorazine for an irritable polis.

That I am not surprised does not mean I am not outraged.

The "positive thinking" and "self-reliance" rhetoric is a tool the Bosses use to blame the proles for failing to overcome the hurdles, pitfalls, and obstacles the Owners set before them.

The "sin" at the root of all "religious" crimes is "thought."

The Bosses don't have to control what you think as long as they control what you think about, and how you think about it."

The Difference? Drunks run stop-signs; stoners wait for 'em to turn green.

The Rich make "choices": Porsche or Jag;the poor make "decisions": Food or rent.

The Secret of Life: It's doable, once you quit expecting it not to suck.

The biggest difference between "flying" and "falling" is in the landing.

The epitome of human hubris is the frantic search for the cure for death.

The greatest privilege the privileged enjoy is the privilege of pretending they aren't privileged.

The more knowledge there is, the less "miraculous" the Universe seems, but the MORE astonishing.